


Crossbow Love || DARYL DIXON

by MagicMillard



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-01 16:34:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13298838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicMillard/pseuds/MagicMillard
Summary: Originally posted to Wattpad, but I'm putting my Daryl Dixon fic up on here now I'm giving it the once over it so badly needed.





	1. Two birds, one stone

The birds are chirping cheerfully all around us, flying in and out of the branches of the trees surrounding us. The wind is blowing gently against our faces while the sun is shinning brightly in the sky above us. The weather is being awfully kind of us today, but then again, most of the time the weather is lovely here. Being in the southern state of Georgia, USA, I didn’t expect anything less, having come from the UK, where it rains pretty much all year round. Today it’s so nice that it’s almost, _very almost_ , possible to forget the horrors that are lingering outside the wire fences of our little haven.

The fallen leaves, that scatter wonderful colours of brown, yellow and orange around us, crunch under our feet with every step we take. I’ve spent the last hour staring blankly at the back of this man and so I’m just going to be frank about it when I admit that I have no idea what makes Daryl Dixon so attractive. I mean, yeah, he’s not bad to look at, but there’s something more than that, something beneath the surface that puts him that little bit above any other man I’ve ever come across in my life. If he showed even the tiniest bit of interest in me, I wouldn’t second guess the feelings I have towards him. However, he doesn’t even seem to notice my existence on this planet half the time. So, I’m not exactly sure why I still have it in me to like him.

Today is one of the very few days we’ve actually spent any time alone together. I spent one of those times passed out as he dragged my sorry ass back to the camp he was staying in a little outside of Atlanta when everything initially stared falling to shit.

I can only recall one other time I have been outside the safety of the fences in the time we have been inhabiting the prison complex. I was out there with the rest of the group, moments before we took the place as our own. Thinking back to then makes it feel like a lifetime ago.

Daryl usually spends most of his time staying out of my way. He doesn’t actively go looking to spend time with any of the others, but today is different. He’s been partaking in full conversations with me, which make a nice change from the usual grunts he makes whenever I’ve tried getting anything out of him in the past.

Seeing as he was feeling sociable enough to reciprocate full interactions from me, I took it further than I probably should have done and pushed my luck in asking him if he would let me use his crossbow some time. I didn’t mean anything by it. Daryl, on the other hand, took it quite literally, saying that he would take me out today to do it. To say I was shocked would be an understatement of epic proportions. True to his style, he agreed upon a certain condition – that we left the compound in order for him to hand the crossbow over. Apparently if he was going to let me use it, he didn’t want me anywhere near anyone or anything that I could cause harm to. I agreed with his condition, hoping to think I’m not going to be that bad.    

With the weather being as delightful as it is at the moment, I don’t mind that I’m having to do a bit of walking about, if anything, it’s an unexpected treat. (Not that I’d ever tell Daryl that.) To add to the list of bonuses, we’ve not had to put any walkers down yet either. It’s given us more of an opportunity to survey and admire the beauty that is left in the world around us.

Speaking honestly, walkers are a massive pain. However, with each passing day the walking dead are becoming less and less of an issue that we’re having to deal with – after a while of killing them, it becomes nothing more than part of our daily lives. Although nobody wants to say it, we all know the biggest threat we face now is somebody wanting to take what we have away from us.

“This is it,” Daryl announces sharply, abruptly dragging me away from my thoughts. He looks over my shoulder as his eyes roam the area around us for any potential threats. By now, we’ve been walking for a good amount of time. My legs were on the verge of getting tired so I’m glad we’ve finally got to where we were going.

The large grassy area we’re standing in looks identical to any of the other openings we’ve passed on our way here. There’s no logical reason for why we had to come out this far, it just makes it seem like he wanted to waste all my energy before getting here, not to mention how much safer we would be in we would have stayed closer to the prison. If the shit hits the fan now, there’s no way either of us would be able to run all the way back there in time. The other option is that I’m reading too much into the whole thing.

Despite wanting to forget about it, more questions start running around in my head. I mean surely nobody in the history of humankind has ever been that terrible at wielding a crossbow? Of course, Daryl makes it look easier than it is, but I still don’t think that’s a strong argument for taking me out on a miniature hike.

As I mentally answer the questions I have in my head, once again overthinking, Daryl snaps me out of my trance by snapping his fingers a couple of inches in front of my face, making sure I’ve still got my wits about me. I swat him away and he goes make to setting up a target as best he can with the things he has around him. He picks up one of the thousands of leaves on the ground and pins it to the nearest tree using one of his smaller knives.

“That’s the target you’re trying to hit.” He informs me, explaining it to me as if I wouldn’t have been able to figure out that one on my own – how charming. He turns back around and comes to stand next to me, remining quiet for a second.

I’ve never fired a crossbow before, and before the end of the world I’d never even held a gun, let alone fired one. Having never used one before was sort of the reason why I asked, guns aren’t really my thing and I figured something like a crossbow might be a good place to start. You know, two birds, one stone.

After setting up and telling me what he wants me to do, Daryl hands his crossbow over to me and takes a moment to run his eyes over me when he thinks I’m not paying any attention. Not that I would have been any good if he didn’t check me out like that, but it certainly does put me off. I grip the weapon awkwardly, not sure of how I should be standing in the first place.

“Here, stand like this.” He commands quietly, just about loud enough for me to hear him. Daryl mimics the stance he usually holds when he’s aiming his sights on something. It’s safe to say that if you’re the ‘something’ he’s aiming for, you’re already dead before he’s pulled the trigger. I take a moment to study the layout of his body and the angles he’s holding his limbs at.

“Like this?” I ask in a feeble attempt to mirror his body with mine. I set my feet further apart, bring the stock of the crossbow to the very top of my shoulder. The latter part being something I did already know. Most people think the stock has to sit even, but that’s not right at all.

“Lift the crossbow a little more,” I do as he instructs me. I was the one who asked him to do this, so it kind of puts me in a position where I have to do exactly what he tells me to, otherwise I’ll end up looking like a jerk. “Higher.” He adds.

We stand there for a while, Daryl attempts to have me correct my posture by verbally instructing me on how to do so. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t apprehensive about Daryl losing his cool and snapping any second now. Everybody knows he has a short fuse and its becoming ever more apparent by the second that I’m not cut out for using a crossbow in the same way he is. It’s how I am with most other things too. I’m not particularly skilled at any one things, I’m just decent at a lot of things.

I try explaining this to Daryl, but he just tells me how wrong I am.

“Nonsense, let me show you.” He doesn’t sounds pissed off, which is a bonus. I’m not quite sure if it’s scarier or not. Either way, he beckons for me to pass him back his weapon. I hold the bow out to him with both hands, shaking his head at me as I do so instead of taking it from me like he made it seem like that’s what he wanted me to do. Instead he decides to surprise me, so much so I’m starting to think there’s a worm eating away at his brain with the way he’s been acting today. Daryl makes his way to stand behind me and moves himself uncomfortably close to me. He’s within such a close proximity that I can feel his breath against the back of my neck every time he exhales. I feel the rise and fall of his chest against my back too. He slides his callous hands down my arms, so his own are encasing me. He lifts my smaller arms up into the correct position.

“Yeah, that’s more like it.” He talks into my ear, barely speaking above a whisper, putting his face so close to mine that I can feel the stubble on his cheek brush up against me. I feel my heart skip a beat as my brain goes into meltdown, unable to comprehend what the hell is going on here. “Okay, now fire.”

I pull the trigger and send the arrow hurtling through the air at a rate of knots. It hits the bark of the tree dead in the centre of where the leaf is covering it. I stand there doing nothing other than grinning like an idiot for a moment or two, surprised that I was even able to hit the tree.

He steps away from me and slightly retracts his arms from around his body in the process. “See. Knew you could do it.” He almost smiles, as if he’s stopping himself from doing so because he feels like he’s not allowed to any more.

“Thanks, Daryl.” I smile, not caring whether I’m supposed to be or not. “I still don’t know why you dragged me all the way out here.” I don’t mean to sound ungrateful at all, I just like knowing things, the same as everyone else does.

“Umm… because…because we needed an open space to do it.” He stutters, making his answer sound more like a question than anything else. He doesn’t even know himself, that much is clear.

“But there was so many ‘open spaces’ we passed on the way out here. They would have been safer too, being closer to the prison and all that. Like you know how lazy I am, it would be awfully kind of you to tell me why you made me walk all the way out here.”

He walks towards me, the space between us shrinking with each tedious step he takes. At this point, I think I might have shoved him that little bit too far. Daryl isn’t the kind of person to lay a finger on the people he cares about, he doesn’t have an abusive bone in his body. I know he’s not going to hurt me, but that doesn’t stop me from being scared. He’s a frightening person when he’s pissed off. I’ve annoyed him before and since vowed that I wasn’t going to do it again.

We stare at each other, neither one of us giving the other an inch. We don’t break eye contact, not once. It’s at this point that I’m starting to think that I’ve gone and broken that vow I was talking about. At least, that what I thought I’ve done up until the point where Daryl lifts my chin up and does so to force me to look at him. They say, ‘the eyes are the window into the soul’ and they were right. Looking into his sharp blue eyes is the way I know he’s not mad at me.

As I look into his eyes, he’s looking right back at me with outstanding accuracy. “I bought you here so I could do this.” His voice trails off as he works his hands up my body, up my sides until they are resting in the curves of my neck.

The same person that’s seemingly spent the last 6 months avoiding me is kissing me like he’s never going to get the chance to again. He even grunted when I went out to find him so I could thank him for saving me from becoming walker chow. Putting it that way, it doesn’t make him sound like much of a catch. I assure you, he really is.

In a world filled with sadness and pain, this moment is just about as perfect as it gets.

**\--|||||--**


	2. Draw the line

Laying down in the comfort of the bottom of the single bunk in my room-come-prison-cell, I stare blankly up at the other bed above me. I've already tried so many things to keep my mind from wandering back to what happened earlier, but all my attempts have been to no avail. Nothing's worked. It's taken a lot of convincing myself that it actually did happen; Daryl has kissed me, not the other way around. I never kissed him,  _he kissed me._

As if there was any denying that I liked him before, there certainly isn't anymore. I've known for ages that I'm attracted to him, but I'd convinced myself that there wasn't even an ounce of interest on his part. After today I've been dragged all the way back to square one. Apparently I was very wrong to think as he didn't want to know. 

I huff in frustration at not being able to get my head around it and turn myself over onto my side, staring at the more than boring plain concrete wall opposite me.

I became a part of this wonderful group of people 2 weeks prior to when we lost Hershel's farm to a massive herd of walkers. It was terrifying, I'd never seen anything like it - all those walkers all together in one group. In the days leading up to the event, Daryl had made it seem crystal clear that he didn't have any feelings towards me, no attraction and that he didn't care in the slightest. This is the reason why I can't, for the life of me, figure out why he kissed me like he did earlier. Like the idiot I am, I didn't say anything to him after the two of us had broken apart from one another. I didn't want to risk ruining any of it. I've waited a long time to kiss him and I didn't want to fuck it all up after so long, even if it was worth every second of the wait. 

I'm pretty sure nothing is going to come of it, but that doesn't mean it wasn't amazing while it lasted. I also know for a fact that a man like him wouldn't be interested in a girl like me. He's a lot older than me, like a lot. While we live in a world where people kill each other just because one of them looked at the other funny, I wouldn't be surprised if it goes against some kind of personal moral code Daryl has with himself. Everyone has to draw the line somewhere, right? 

Despite this negative part of my mind shouting from the rooftops that he made a mistake in the heat of the moment, there's another part telling me that I wasn't making it up when I saw him smiling for the entire walk back to the prison. He was really smiling, possibility the most genuine smile I've ever seen on him. Even if I was dreaming that much, there's no way I was dreaming him keeping his arm around my shoulders the entire way. Of course Rick shot us an odd looks from across the other side of the compound as soon as we came into sight, but not a single word was said as we continued to walk closer and closer to our home.

I still remember to this very day when I first developed a crush on him - a crush sounds so juvenile, but I like it or not, that's what it is. It was the day we went on a run together and Daryl was forced to have me ride on the back of his bike with him. For many, many reasons, in my eyes, he is and always will be the strongest survivor of this group. He's clearly been a survivor long before the world crumbled and for that he's a strong man. Not only that he's smart, agile, robust, he can hunt. The list goes on. We both volunteered for the run, myself more so when I discovered that Daryl said he wanted me with him because I'm faster than everyone else. If shit hit the fan he wanted "someone quick enough to get out before he ended up being walker chow". It wasn't a short bike ride either, I spent at least an hour sat on the back of the roaring bike, my arms wrapped around his waist, nothing to worry about in that moment. It felt safe and if someone can make you feel safe where you could be eaten alive any second, they're worth hanging on to with everything you have. 

"Hey," Daryl's quiet voice emits from the doorway of my cell. The sound snaps me out of my thoughts and I stare back at him, slightly dazed. 

"Uuuh, hi..." I slowly sit up from my lying down position. I move over and make room for him next to me, hopefully he'll take the unspoken offer of sitting next to me.

"I hope I didn't freak you out before..." He trails off like he's wildly unsure of what to say next. He looks so confused it's as if he's still not sure of what he did just say either. 

"Honestly - yes and no. The yes part because I didn't think you were even sure what my name is, let alone liking me enough to kiss me like that." I admit. 

"Of course I know your name," he mutters to himself, his eyes falling to the floor as he shakes his head lightly. He looks back up and walks over to join me. He sits himself down and turns to put himself on the angle of looking in my direction. "You know, I thought there was something wrong with me. I thought I was weak for feeling like this for you. Honestly, you scare me. I tried ignoring the feelings, even tried to stop them. I thought being an asshole would help, I thought it worked for a while too.  At one point, I would have bet my crossbow you lost interest..." He trails off, knowing that he's the only one he can blame for thinking that. 

Then again, I did hate him for a while. Hated him for saving my life and then go about pretending like I didn't exist. Although I was the one who owed him something, that didn't stop it from hurting. However, it didn't last long. I tried being mad at him, but it soon faded away when he started talking to me like I was a human being every now and then. 

"You're really starting to freak me out now, you're letting that hard-man demeanour of yours slip." I joke, hoping it will make something more of the conversation and maybe even reduce some of the awkwardness sitting in the air between us. 

"So... you like me then?" He asks, the tone of his voice hardening along with the muscles in his arms tensing up too as he waits for me to give my response. This is the Dixon I know, the one that gets uncomfortable in these sort of situations. 

"Yeah, I do." I say not knowing whether I should have said that or not. Being that brutally honest is difficult, even if you're giving what you believe to be the positive answer. I reach over and rest my hand on his upper arm, wrapping my fingers loosely around his muscles. "I probably gave the impression I didn't. I told myself you weren't interested. I tried distancing myself from you too, the difference being that I failed a lot quicker than you did." 

"Well, you told yourself wrong." He tells me in an almost threatening tone, keeping up with the appearance that he's been good at holding up until now. His eyes tell a different story though, he's not worried about looking like he actually has feelings, he's trying not to seem too excited about me just telling him that I still like him.

**\--|||||--**


	3. All the right reasons

 

My heart flutters against the inside of my rib cage as Daryl moves in on the space between us and his lips don't have any difficulty in finding mine to settle on. Upon the second of us making contact, the feeling of apprehensiveness dissolves away and transforms into one of excitement. He softly places his larger hand on my shoulder, giving him the leverage he needs to push me backwards until the point where my shoulders hit my bed and I'm lying down again.

He then moves himself so that he's re-positioned over me, keeping himself propped up with his muscular arms in order to stop from crushing my smaller frame under his own. I reach up to touch his arm, feeling the flesh there tense as I do so. He stiffens for a couple of seconds, but keeps his mouth glued to mine, not retracting himself for even a fraction of a second.

In this very moment, I'm still having trouble getting over the surprise of what's actually happening and that, for once, something good is happening for all the right reasons. Not for the wrong ones, not because he's got some kind of ulterior motives. I guess I'm also caught off guard because I wasn't expecting anything from him so soon. I half expected nothing to go any further than that; I thought maybe that he would change his mind after realising it wasn't really what he wanted after all. 

He's both forceful and gentle at keeping me right where he wants me, not that I'm complaining of course. The most comforting feeling about it was knowing that, even though he's got a grip like a vice on me, if I wanted to stop, he would do so in a heartbeat.  

"I should have told you before..." He trails off, struggling to find the words he's looking for. He takes himself away from  me slightly to speak, but makes sure to keep his face ever so close to mine. He leaves me longing for more of the feeling of his lips pressing up against mine, however, I leave the ball in Daryl's court to decide if he wants to continue with where we left left off.  "I mean I've wanted this for a while now." He pipes up again, talking quietly, a split second before I was going to say something. His lips are the thing that stop me from saying anything a second time and I find myself melting all over again. 

After a short while of kissing relentlessly, Daryl pulls away to stare down at me with eyes so sharp I have to be careful that his gaze doesn't cut me. 

"Pinch me." He mumbles in a tone that clearly illustrates his feelings of thinking he's stuck in the middle of a highly lucid dream. A smile falls across his features as he soon comes to realise that this isn't in his head, making me chuckle at him. My smile turns into more of a smirk as I literally pinch his forearm, earning me a raised eye brow from Daryl. 

"What?" I question his unimpressed expression, "you told me to." I say innocently, the corners of my lips straining not to grin like too much of an idiot. 

"Act like you're innocent all you want, that one-hundred-million-dollar smile on your face gives it away." He tells me. 

"Now, why would you tell me to do something if you didn't want me to?" I smile at him, knowing he's only joking. He might even enjoy the pain, I sure don't know him well enough to say whether he does or doesn't. 

"Because there was that small chance you might actually do it, like you just did." He responds, making me think that I'm able to read minds, which would be an extremely useful skill to have come to think about it. 

"What? Are you some kind of sadist or something?" I ask, quickly coming to regret asking as such due to the reaction I gain from him. His face transforms from one of the smile I've easily come to love within such a brief period of time

I have no idea what to do from here, what to say. 

"Daryl?" My voice seems to be the catalyst in snapping him out of the trance he was in. He raises his eyes back up to look into mine, he's smiling again, but this time it's anything but genuine. He's smiling for my sake. I don't want him to, but it is nice to know that it's not me he's pissed off with. It's something else. It's through someone's eyes that you can tell if they're really smiling or if they're simply pretending to. When I look into his I don't see a smile. 

"No, I don't like pain. I'm just good at dealing with it." He slams his lips down on mine again, hinting that he doesn't want to talk about it, that he'd rather lose himself in making out with me.

**\--|||||--**   


End file.
